Regional History

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1828-1844

Daily Record/Sunday News

Updated:
09/14/2006 12:43:26 PM EDT

Jan 25, 2005 — 1828: York County

Journalist criticizes judges

Anne Royall, an outspoken journalist who travels the country writing about her experiences, visits the county. She finds the Globe Inn to her liking but focuses on Judge Ebenezer G. Bradford, a native New Englander. Now, this pioneer woman journalist likes to poke at New Englanders. "It is much to be lamented that these Pennsylvanians are not more particular in their choice of rulers," she previously had written. "Having so much good sense and honesty among themselves, it is surprising they pick up those Yankee outlaws whom they exalt from selling tin buckets and horn flints to the Bench!" At the courthouse, she makes a speech before the judge where she warns of Yankee peddlers dispensing justice. "They gazed at me in astonishment -- it never came to their heads that Pennsylvanians would make as good judges as Yankees," she wrote. Her comment is a bit unfair. Native county residents before and after Bradford served as judges.

1828: York

"The Museum" amuses York

County residents have the opportunity to view a statue of Napoleon after his confinement at St. Helena. They can see a bust of George Washington or an engraving of the interior of the Royal Vault, St. George's Chapel, Windsor. They can browse past a painting of a French Lady "by an Italian," or Lady Packingham, wife of the British general killed in the Battle of New Orleans. These works of art can be viewed in Ferdinand L.

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Spangler's "The Museum." Spangler hopes the museum, near the corner of Main and Beaver streets, will instruct and amuse. Admission is 25 cents for adults, half price for children and 50 cents for season tickets. "The proprietor would have the public to understand that the monies received at the door will be invested in new articles of curiosity," he said.

1828: York County

College's early beginnings

Lancaster County-based Franklin and Marshall College and Lancaster Theological Seminary grow from roots planted for a time in county soil. The seminary of the German Reformed Church moves to York, and a classical school is founded in 1832. Both schools move in 1836 to Mercersburg in Franklin County, where they become known as Mercersburg Seminary and Marshall College, respectively. Mercersburg Seminary gains a national reputation for innovations in theology. Its new concepts often attract controversy. The two institutions later moved to Lancaster, where the seminary took on its current name, and Marshall College combined with Franklin College to become Franklin and Marshall.

1829: York

Rush opposes Masons

Richard Rush, internationally known for his diplomatic work, makes York his home for four years. Rush is son of Declaration of Independence signer Dr. Benjamin Rush. He became known for negotiating an agreement with Great Britain providing for disarmament of the Great Lakes after the War of 1812. The former U.S. attorney general and treasury secretary met defeat as vice presidential running mate to John Quincy Adams in 1828. Facing financial problems, he and his wife and five children move from Washington, D.C., to York, where he owns some property. In York, he loudly opposes Masons and other fraternal societies. Through his writings, York becomes a center for the anti-Masonic movement. "I see objections to secret societies, because, pursuing objects not known to the public, through means not known to the public, they act under diminished responsibilities to the public," he wrote. Rush eventually disagrees with York's political leaders and moves to Philadelphia but continues to serve on the York County Academy Board of Trustees. As a U.S. agent in Britain in 1836, he received the bequest of $500, 000 leading to the establishment of the Smithsonian Institution.

1829: York

Photographer Goodridge born

Glenalvin Goodridge, later York's first native son to establish a lasting photo studio, is born to William and Evalina Goodridge. Glenalvin Goodridge taught school and took up part-time work as a daguerreotypist in 1847, one of only five or six African Americans known to have worked as photographers before 1850. Goodridge reaches his pinnacle when he wins first place in a photography competition at the York Fair in 1856. His low point comes in 1862 when he is convicted of rape and sentenced to five years in Eastern Penitentiary in Philadelphia. More than 100 of York's leading citizens petition the governor for Goodridge's release. The petition includes the arguments that the alleged victim waited three months after the attack, Goodridge produced a credible alibi, the jury took 20 hours to reach a verdict, and the conviction would not have occurred if the defendant was white. The petition moves Governor Andrew G. Curtin to action. He pardons Goodridge after two years in prison. But in prison, Goodridge contracts tuberculosis. The disease claims his life in 1867.

1830: York

Engraver makes an impression

William Wagner, engraver and artist, publishes his "Views In The Borough of York & Vicinity," a compilation of colorful works documenting that period. A historian noted that Wagner's architectural views, combined with artist Lewis Miller's drawings of people and events, make York one of the most highly depicted American communities of the early 19th century. Wagner also engraved 50 state, municipal and organizational seals. Another engraver with county roots makes a deep impression on the national scene. Christian Gobrecht, a Hanover native, gains the position of draftsman and die-sinker for the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia in 1836. He designs and makes the dies for the dollar of 1836. He becomes chief engraver with the Mint from 1840 until his death in 1844.

1831: York County

Lutherans spread English

The growing use of English in Lutheran churches signals the increasing acceptance of that language throughout the county. In 1832, German publications urge Lutheran pastors to learn the English language. In a reverse twist several years later, those wishing for financial support to study for Lutheran pastorates are expected to learn German. By 1850, two English-speaking Lutheran congregations meet in York -- St. Paul's and Zion. In the 1860s, Trinity German Reformed Church, an English-speaking church, grows from First German Reformed Church. The German-speaking mother congregation later became Zion German Reformed Church, across from Penn Park. Both churches meet today in York as part of the United Church of Christ denomination.

1831: York

Davis builds locomotive

Phineas Davis gains a $4,000 award from the Baltimore and Ohio Steam Railway for building "The York," the first successful coal-burning locomotive steam engine in the United States. The locomotive reaches a top speed of 30 miles per hour. Davis designs and builds the locomotive in the foundry and machine shop he owns with partner Israel Gardner at West King and South Newberry streets in York. Earlier, John Elgar's "The Codorus," the first American iron steamboat, was built in this same shop. As the story goes, Davis arrived in York in 1809, a barefoot boy of 14. He launched his career as an inventor in the shop of watchmaker Jonathan Jessop. The railroad gives Davis his fame, but it also takes his life. Davis dies when the train on which he is riding derails in 1835. An elementary school in the York City School District is named after Phineas Davis.

1832: York

Materials travel the Codorus

About 160 men load into the canal boat "Codorus" for a three-mile ride on Codorus Creek, made navigable by a series of dams and locks. The Codorus and sister boat "Pioneer" make three trips that July 4 to the picnic site. Two days later, two boatloads of women travel to the end of the Codorus Navigation. The next year, workers make the creek navigable to the Susquehanna River. "Yesterday the first ark arrived here out of the Susquehanna, loaded with forty thousand feet of boards & upwards of one hundred persons, who had gone out to witness the opening scene of our navigation," a newspaper reported. The newspaper claimed that one horse could carry a load on the waterway that would demand 100 horses over land. A navigable Codorus Creek provides the county with another means for transporting goods. "Arks may now load with whiskey or other produce," the newspaper said, "and start from Mainstreet (West Market Street) Bridge in York, and proceed either to the Philadelphia or Baltimore Market." Steam locomotives provide more horsepower, however. Rail service to Harrisburg, Baltimore and Wrightsville rendered Codorus Navigation obsolete by about 1850.

1832: Lewisberry

Lewisberry, new borough

Lewisberry becomes the county's third borough following York (1787) and Hanover (1815). Dillsburg, Wrightsville, Shrewsbury, Stewartstown, Glen Rock, Goldsboro, Dover and Loganville were formed before 1865. Incorporation points to their importance as busy crossroads, agricultural or business centers. Dillsburg, for example, grows around the intersection of the Harrisburg-Baltimore and York-Carlisle roads. The busy town is located in a notch in the mountains, making it a popular destination for weary settlers seeking a route of least resistance. New Salem, perhaps the county's least recognized municipality today, was formed in 1876. County residents usually refer to the borough as York New Salem.

1832: Codorus Township

Lopsided Democratic wins

Codorus Township residents show their Democratic stripes by backing Andrew Jackson's re-election bid, 338-1. The town of Jefferson shows respect for its namesake, Thomas Jefferson. Democratic candidates, heirs to President Jefferson, gain lopsided support after the borough incorporates in 1866. Neighboring North Codorus Township likes Democrats, too. But all three bastions of the Democratic Party cross the line in 1928 in backing Republican Herbert Hoover over Alfred E. Smith in the presidential race by a 3-2 margin. But it was back to Democrat Franklin Roosevelt in 1932 by a 5-1 margin. One historian credits county Associate Judge John L. Hinkle, with strong connections in the southern part of the county, for whipping up lopsided Democratic margins in 19th-century York County. "For many years he exerted possibly more influence over the German vote of the county than any other person who ever lived in the county," the historian wrote.

1833: Dillsburg

Matthew Quay begins his rise

Matthew S. Quay, later a U.S. senator and Pennsylvania Republican Party boss, is born. This son of a Presbyterian minister moves from Dillsburg to Beaver County when he is 6 years in age. He rises to the rank of colonel of the 134th Pennsylvania Infantry and earns a Medal of Honor for action at the Battle of Fredericksburg in 1862. "Although out of service, he voluntarily resumes duty on the eve of battle and took a conspicuous part in the charge on the heights," the medal citation, issued in 1888, stated. Quay rises to political power after the Civil War, falling between Simon Cameron and Boies Penrose in the line of party leaders who influenced state politics for generations. He is first elected to the Senate in 1887 and heads the National Republican Committee in 1888 when he shows political prowess on the national level. He gains credit for helping Benjamin Harrison win the U.S. presidency. One historian referred to Quay as the ablest and most astute of the state's "political gladiators and party bosses."

1833: York County

Snow buries York residents

Heavy snow, measuring a yard deep, disables the gathering of wood to warm York residents. George Loucks, a distillery owner, hoards 200 cords of wood, saying he needs it to power his still. York's chief burgess requisitions the wood anyway and hauls it to those in need. Loucks later receives payment. A diarist said the snow was so deep in York that workers dug tunnels to get from one side of the street to the other. Sore-backed workers shovel the first five miles of the York-Gettysburg Turnpike for the passage of mail, passengers and freight service.

1833: York County

Meteor shower lights up sky

A meteor shower makes the night lighter than daylight and provides sounds with the sights. Some county residents wonder if the world is ending. "It was an awful strain on the strongest nerves. People fell on their knees that night, asking was the world ending? Or was there some great event to take place for which all heaven was illuminated?" an observer wrote. This exhibition is the brightest-on-record exhibition of the Leonid meteor shower. In 1907, a farmer's plow north of Shrewsbury uncovers one of the largest meteorites then found in the state. The meteorite attracted the farmer's attention because of its weight -- it measured 6 inches in width and weighed 24 pounds. The meteorite later was sliced into museum specimens and distributed to several leading museums.

1834: York & Lincolnshire, England

Glossbrenner compiles history

Newspaperman Adam J. Glossbrenner compiles W.C. Carter's research into a book that details county history from 1729 to 1834. This history becomes a source for future works and remains a vital reference work for historians and school students today. Glossbrenner, a Democrat, later becomes owner of The York Gazette, gains several posts in President James Buchanan's administration and wins election to a U.S. congressional seat.

1834: Harrisburg

Schools face a tough start

Voters in about 1, 000 districts are authorized to accept or reject public schools in Pennsylvania. Statewide, about 50 percent of the districts accept public schools. In York and four other heavily German counties, only 26 of the 116 districts vote yes. Of York County's 29 districts, only seven vote in favor of public schools. York wasted no time, opening its first public elementary school in 1834. Pennsylvania Germans reject a system considered a threat to their culture. It is assumed that the primary language of instruction in public education would be English. But these districts slowly reverse themselves as years pass. By 1865, 99 percent of the districts in the state have accepted public schools, including all but one in York County. Manheim Township, the county's holdout, accepted public schools in 1870.

1835: York

Presbyterian division

More than 150 churchmen from the region converge on First Presbyterian Church in York to determine whether noted Philadelphia pastor Albert Barnes should lose his pulpit because of heretical teachings. Barnes is author of the popular "Barnes Notes," highly read by the common man and used for preparation of Sunday school lessons. The York community becomes interested in this trial of national scope involving one of America's largest denominations. The delegates vote 142-16 to suspend Barnes from the pulpit of his church. The next year, Barnes appeals to the highest Presbyterian church body. The General Assembly votes 134-96 that Barnes could regain his pulpit. The Barnes trial further polarizes a dividing national Presbyterian church. The denomination splits into two camps in 1838.

1835: York

Suicide reported

The county is abuzz with the news that Dr. Adam King, a prominent York politician-physician, hanged himself in his home. King owned The York Gazette and served three terms in the Congress, two terms as orphan's court clerk and was serving as a presidential elector at the time of his death. Grieving journalists at his newspaper report his death in great detail in an article titled "Melancholy Event." Many newspapers of the day regularly provide details of suicides.

1836: York

A Lyceum education

County residents hear speakers lecture on meteorology, minerals and the application of geology, botany and chemistry to agriculture. The speakers come to York as part of the state Lyceum convention. As decades pass, the Lyceums blend into the Chautauqua movement, also popular in the county. The Swarthmore Chautauqua, for example, visited the county in the Roaring '20s, presenting music, acting and lectures. "America's Purpose in the Orient," "What we ought to know about the Philippines," "The Wild People and Cannibals in the South Sea Islands," and "What Oriental Religions have done for the Orientals," were among the Chautauqua lecture topics.

1837: York County

Husbands' ads against wives

Wives did not always stay with their husbands "until death us do part" in the late 18th and 19th centuries. When they do leave their husbands' "bed and board," it is customary for the men to warn the public. They pay for county newspaper advertisements warning against granting their wives credit on their accounts. William Adams takes the matter farther, saying in an ad that readers "are hereby discharged from harboring the said Agness at their peril."
In 1837, a York newspaper tells of The Wheeling (W.Va.) Times decision to cease running such ads because in most cases the husband is out for revenge because of some "fancied injury." The newspaper reasons that the spouse generally provides no bed for her "and none but the ditch for himself." As to the board, it's often a piece of wood laid upon the back and shoulders, an apparent reference to abuse or the hard life of toil facing many women. The newspaper must be convinced that the ad would be justified and "then only when the fee is paid at the time of insertion."

1837: York County

Court hears slave case

A county court case involving a runaway slave ends in the U.S. Supreme Court. Margaret Morgan, the runaway, lives with her children in York. Edward Prigg, an agent for her slave master, seizes her without securing his rights by the proper authorities. This violates the state law against kidnapping. Prigg is convicted and appeals his case to the Supreme Court. In 1842, the Supreme Court rules that states are exempt from enforcing the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793, which provided for the return of slaves who escaped to free states. Since Pennsylvania and York County law enforcement officials are no longer required to aid in catching slaves, more fugitives head north, and the Underground Railroad comes under sharper attack in the South. The federally imposed Compromise of 1850 offsets Prigg by introducing the Fugitive Slave Law. This legislation forbids Northerners from harboring slaves and created a federal enforcement system to catch escaped slaves.

1838: York

Railroad links to Baltimore

The first railroad train arrives in York from Baltimore. Artist Lewis Miller captures the scene, showing a crowd awaiting a locomotive pulling two cars crowded with passengers. The Baltimore and Susquehanna Railroad trains follow the path of the future Northern Central Railroad. The rail connection with Baltimore allows farmers and other producers in the county to more easily reach a southern port. Indeed, it helps strengthen the orientation of area producers toward southern markets. While Philadelphia remains a key port, the Susquehanna River and the distance to the City of Brotherly Love serve as barriers for east-west trade. The rail route to York passes through the Howard Tunnel, carved through a hillside with the help of black powder, hammers and hand drills. Today, county residents have become familiar with the Northern Central Railroad because the York County Heritage Rail/Trail stretches beside its tracks.

1838: Etters

Post office comes to Etters

A post office is established at Henry Etters Tavern, a mile above future Goldsboro along the road between York and Harrisburg. When the Northern Central Railroad comes through Goldsboro in 1850, the post office is moved there. Goldsboro's post office today retains the Etters name. Goldsboro retained another distinction until about 1989. It was one of a handful of municipalities in the state that did not levy a real estate tax.

1839: York

Van Buren visits York

Unpopular U.S. President Martin Van Buren visits York with little fanfare. Well-wishers welcome him at the White Hall Hotel, now the National House. The president declines a public reception because of a promise to avoid ostentation at a time when the country is reeling from the Panic of 1837. Van Buren leaves for his New York home the next morning. The panic results from former President Andrew Jackson's policies, but the public blames Van Buren. In contrast to Van Buren's visit, when Gen. Andrew Jackson passed through York in 1819, a newspaper said "a large concourse of citizens" assembled to see the hero of the Battle of New Orleans.

1840: Glenville

Summer brings church picnics

St. Jacob's (Stone) Lutheran and Reformed Church sponsors a church picnic, a future rite of summer in the county. The first picnics generate fellowship, conversation and religious education. The festivities begin with prayers and services at churches or schoolhouses before recessing to groves or woods with bands sometimes in the lead. Later, the picnics evolve into a time for reunion, exchanging community news and listening to band music. Crock breaking, Gong Show, Kiss a Pig and Molly, Molly May are among the many games and contests that become part of the picnic fun.

1840: Hanover

Water wheels keep rolling

Millwright Samuel Fitz starts manufacturing wooden water wheels. Descendant John Samuel Fitz continued the Hanover tradition 125 years later. Other companies started making steel wheels, but Fitz Water Wheels continued to turn out the wooden variety. In the mid-20th century, missionaries in Africa, South America and Central America purchased the wheels to provide power for schools and hospitals. Museums and historic sites also purchased wheels. "Making wooden wheels is all handwork, so it gets pretty expensive, but most of the buyers want them to be authentic," John Samuel Fitz said several years before the company went out of business in the early 1970s.

1840: Wrightsville

Link opened to Baltimore

The Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal opens five years after Pennsylvania issues a charter for the waterway. The 45-mile canal follows the west side of the Susquehanna River from Wrightsville to the Chesapeake Bay. The canal, run by a private company from 1840 to 1872, provides a vital trade route with Baltimore. The shallow, rocky Susquehanna makes river navigation difficult. Before its grand opening, the Susquehanna and Baltimore Railroad runs a line from York to Wrightsville. Dignitaries make the four-hour rail trip from Baltimore to celebrate the occasion. Their choice of rail travel suggests that the canal is becoming obsolete before it opens. Still, travelers could board a canal boat in York and travel to any port in the world without touching land. They could travel to the Susquehanna via Codorus Navigation, float down the river to Wrightsville and enter the canal to Baltimore. There, they could board a clipper ship. The Reading Railroad operated the canal until 1894, when a flood damaged it beyond repair. Miles of canal channel and locks still can be seen, particularly Lock 12 in the recreational area near Norman Wood Bridge, Lower Chanceford Township.

1840: Wrightsville

Dam hinders shad migration

A 10-foot-high dration and wins election to a U.S. congressional seat.

1840: Wrightsville

Dam hinders shad migration

A 10-foot-high dam across the Susquehanna River creates a slackwater pool to enable boats to travel between canals on each side of the river. But this obstruction spells the end of the annual migration of shad returning to the Susquehanna to spawn. "The free-flowing Susquehanna was free no more," one author wrote. Fish passageways built into the dam do not help shad migration, and additional dams to generate hydroelectric power were built in the early 20th century. The annual migration is expected to return after 2000 with the completion of fish ladders near the York Haven power plant. The river again will be open to shad fishing. The Wrightsville impoundment and later dams also disturb the spawning cycle of eels, another gamefish. It is said that many households have eel spears next to their family rifle to hook their prey in area creeks. People eat eels, but many use their skins for shoelaces, bookbindings, whips, and as a remedy for illness and disease. "Eels were dried, pulverized and sewn into eel skin sacks for shipment to China where they were valued as an aphrodisiac," one history states.

1841: York

Courthouse demolished

The original Colonial Courthouse, the building where the Continental Congress sat in 1777-78, is demolished to the disgruntlement of some townspeople. The same fate befalls its Centre Square neighbor, the State House. Some townspeople recognize the historic nature of the buildings. According to one source, demolition came because the hand "of modern improvement laid it low ... to make a more 'commodious' place for the holding of a public market in the subsequently erected (market) sheds...." It is said a gilded figure of a dragoon is found in the debris. The dragoon, called "The Little Man" or "The General," had been installed as a weather vane on the courthouse in Revolutionary War days. The figure honored Count Casimir Pulaski, ally of Gen. George Washington. After its recovery, the metal figure occupied a new home atop the towers of a succession of Laurel Fire Co. engine houses. The old courthouse is expendable because a new county building is open on the first block of East Market Street. According to one account, the new $100, 000 courthouse resembles a Protestant New England church with its six granite pillars and a triangular peak leading to a steeple.

1842: York County

Charles Dickens stops for dinner

Charles Dickens, author of "A Christmas Carol," passes through the county. He travels by rail from Baltimore to York, where he dines at the 14-year-old White Hall Hotel, the future National House. "There we dined and I chose beefsteak, the best ever I have enjoyed," he wrote. Dickens and the 11 other coach passengers later stop at Henry Etters Tavern near Goldsboro and then shuttle through the countryside near the Susquehanna River to Harrisburg. Dickens wrote (as only Dickens would): "The mist, wreathing itself into a hundred fantastic shapes, moved solemnly upon the water; and the gloom of evening gave to all an air of mystery and silence which greatly enhanced its natural interest."

1843: Dover

Store owner gets new start

Peter Wiest, an enterprising Dover merchant, loses everything as a fire devastates his downtown store one snowy evening. Wiest readies his goods for transport to a new location in York when the blaze starts. One story suggests Wiest, who is handicapped, escapes with his life by running in the 20-inch snow with the aid of crutches. Now without money or goods to sell, he moves to York, obtains credit and opens a small store. His shop grew into a department store that helped make York the county's retail hub through the first 75 years of the 20th century.

1843: Mount Wolf

Lumber puts town on the map

Adam Wolf starts the lumber, hardware and building materials business of A. Wolf & Son in New Holland, later called Saginaw. Wolf purchases logs floating down the river in huge rafts from Williamsport and beyond to supply his lumber business. George H., a son, becomes postmaster of Day's Landing and later Mount Campbell. George Wolf also becomes stationmaster of the stop on the steep rail grade. The town growing around the station and the relocated Wolf lumber business is called Mount Wolf. Wolf and his sons carry on his father Adam's business dealing in lumber, feed and general merchandise. Wolf operates the successful business until retirement in 1891. The business survives a Confederate raid in June 1863. The rebels capture much of the store's merchandise paying in largely worthless Confederate dollars. Today, Adam Wolf's heirs lead The Wolf Organization, operator of a regional group of lumberyards, building supply businesses and various other enterprises. The York company's West Market Street headquarters are located in the former Wiest Department Store building. Peter Wiest, department store founder, also started his career in 1843.

1844: York County

Chimney fires pose hazards

Firefighters are kept busy, dangerously so, because of frequent chimney fires. The inattention of townspeople toward maintaining a clean chimney draws a response from a York newspaper. In these days of hand-drawn firefighting apparatus, firefighters must sacrifice considerable time and energy in hoofing several miles when tending to a fire in a remote part of town. "Frequently men leave their business, and endanger their health through the carelessness of some of our citizens, in regard to their chimnies (sic)," the newspaper noted.